Boffins plan to drop €250,000 TEST-TUBE BURGER on London

It's the mega-pricey cultured-meat slab without any of the grease, but would you wolf down a five-ounce lab-bred burger?

The world's most expensive piece of fast food - a meat patty made up of cultured meat that cost a massive €250,000 (£211,000, $325,000) to create - will soon be served in London.

Designed by a group of scientists at Maastricht University, led by professor of vascular physiology Dr Mark Post, the burger is made from in vitro muscle cells.

The number of burgers and the venue where they're to be eaten has yet to be confirmed. Post has insisted that the snack, upon which he has conducted "informal taste tests" will taste "reasonably good".

The burger is slightly bigger than a Burger King whopper or McDonalds Quarter Pounder, but there will be no gherkins or secret sauces used to garnish the pricey snack, just a bit of salt and pepper, says Post.

Anyone planning to save up for this beefy burger will probably be out of luck, as the lucky taster will be chosen by the project's main investor.

Post said the researchers hoped this project could cut back humanity's reliance on huge herds of methane-spewing cows.

He said: "I see the major hurdles, probably better than anybody else,” he said. “But you’ve got to have faith in technological advances, that they will be solved.

He added: “If we can reduce the global herd a millionfold, then I’m happy. I don’t need to reduce it a billionfold.

"I’m not by nature a very passionate guy. But I feel strongly that this could have a major impact on society in general. And that’s a big motivator.”

The meat was made using stem cells gathered from the neck of a slaughterhouse cow as it awaited its final moments. These were used to grow billions of muscle cells, which were used to create 20,000 strips of muscle.

At the time of writing, the price of gold was sitting at £1,429 (€1,101) per fine ounce, meaning that the development of the burger cost roughly the same as 227 fine ounces of gold (7kg) more than half the weight of a gold bar. ®